Workers Press no. 1065

workers press

NIXON DEFIES

THE CONGRESS

BY JOHN SPENCER

PRESIDENT Nixon is leaning on the military in a last desperate effort to escape responsibility for the worst political scandal ever to erupt in the United States. He has brought the army vice-chief of staff, General Alexander Haig, into the White House to head his ad- ministration now that his principal aides have been forced to leave. At the same time he has tried to clamp down on any evi- dence of his own involvement in the affair with a blanket de- claration that all such evidence is covered by the secrecy of executive privilege. Nixon is defying the majority in the United States, who are convinced his guilt. of now However discredited he remains head of state, head of govern- ment and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He plans on staying in office, Watergate or no Watergate.

Anyone who wants him out of the White Houseas do some Congressmen who have already started impeachment procedures will have to drag him out kicking and screaming. The appointment of Haig, who served under Henry Kissinger as the administration's chief trouble shooter in Indo-China, most sinister signi- takes on a ficance in this context. US military share all The Nixon's contempt for the forms of capitalist democracy. Is Nixon planning to try and ride out the storm on their backs? Is he moving towards a form of personal rule based on collaboration with close military—a regime strong-man to sweep the scandal under the carpet? Such a regime could try to silence the Press, defy Congress and the Senate to try and put and the line him out hold against the US working class under conditions of rampant in- A CHARGE that the British Army smashed up St Paul's Secondary school in the Falls district of Belfast on Easter Saturday was made yesterday by Jack Dromey, executive member of the National Council for Civil Liberties. The army has denied responsibility. The NCCL passed an emer- gency resolution asking the gov- ernment to abandon the Emer- gency Provisions Bill, repeal the Special Powers Act and ensure freedom for all political groups to contest elections and end internment.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRI

flation and growing militancy in the factories. No wonder the chief witnesses the president, among against them his former White House counsel, John Dean, are in fear for their lives. They know that Nixon will stop at nothing to retain his position at the head of his gangster regime. Watergate is the most serious scandal ever to surface in the United States. The entire administration, Nixon at its head. with con- spired to undermine basic de- mocratic rights on a vast scale in association with gangsters, crooked financiers and shady secret agents. Nixon's invocation of 'execu- tive privilege' has not stopped . the testimony emergence implicating him at the directly centre of the plot. has Dean evidence to given investigators Watergate that shortly after seven men were in- the dicted for break-in at Democratic headquarters he was summoned to the president's office and found Nixon and H. R. Haldeman "all grins" They were pleased with his ability to 'keep the lid on'.

Dean quoted the president as Good job, having told him: John. Bob told me what a great job you've been doing.' Dean's evidence dovetails with an affidavit signed by Egil Krogh, former deputy to John Ehrlichman, who breached the 'executive privilege' ruling to implicate Nixon in planning the theft of files on Pentagon Papers defendant, Daniel Ellsberg. Krogh's affidavit apparently implicates Nixon in planning illegal surveillance of Ellsberg as far back as August 1971. Watergate reveals the putrid decay behind the facade of the two-party system in the United States. The whole of American capi- talist politics is revealed as a rotten charade to dupe and ex- ploit the working class. American labour now faces its biggest challenge. continue to rule Nixon can only with the tacit or active support of the right-wing trade union leaders and the Stalinists.

Those who supported Nixon Teamsters' like the openly, Frank Fitzsimmonds, are leader, directly implicated in scandal. The others, including the CP who lined up behind McGovern in the elections, are tied to a policy of not rocking the boat completely oppose any break with the big business parties. The need for a Congress of Labour to break off relations be- tween the trade unions and the capitalist parties and open a for a Labour mass campaign Party is the real issue raised by Watergate. Only the building of a Labour Party can politically prepare the working class for the oppor- tunities and dangers in front.

: NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MAY 7, 1973

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC

Who's Who of Watergate: a worried ex-White House counsel (above).

WHO IS GENEI

GENERAL Alexander Haig, the new chief of staff at the White House, previously ser- ved as deputy to Dr Henry Kissinger throughout the negotiations on the Indo- China ceasefire. He replaces H. R. Haldeman president's closest as the per- sonal aide and day-to-day head of the administration. His trans- fer from one of the highest Pen- tagon posts to this key job symbolizes continued military backing for Nixon. With the exception of Kissin- ger's foreign affairs department virtually all the top men around Nixon have been implicated in the Watergate scandal. Among the people involved the former heads of the are Justice Dep irtment, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and lead- ing members of the Central In- telligence Agency. Haig is now being promoted as 'Mr Clean' who can purge the scandal from the administra- tion and restore Nixon's credi- bility. Meanwhile, congressional and senate committees are exam- ining the affair and a whole series of criminal cases are pending. No. 1065 4p

IE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

vorried Nixon (top left), ex-White House chief

¡ENERAL HAIG?

Haig It remains to be seen whether Nixon can ride out the crisis with the aid of Haig and John Connally, the tough Texan who has just rallied governor in his support. What is certain is that Nixon is now forced to rely more and more on the military, who have long cherished ambitions of tak- ing more power into their own hands. use chief Haldeman (right); John Dean, OUR fund has now slowed down to a snail's pace. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Northampton 10.00 Holloway 6.00 Southwark 8.00 Slough 3.00

SOGAT

members in Plough Press donated 1 £78, bringing total to our £10,926.37. Please send all dona- tions to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

workers press

NIXON DEFIES

THE CONGRESS

BY JOHN SPENCER

PRESIDENT Nixon is leaning on the military in a last desperate effort to escape responsibility for the worst political scandal ever to erupt in the United States. He has brought the army vice-chief of staff, General Alexander Haig, into the White House to head his ad- ministration now that his principal aides have been forced to leave. At the same time he has tried to clamp down on any evi- dence of his own involvement in the affair with a blanket de- claration that all such evidence by the secrecy of is covered executive privilege. Nixon is defying the majority in the United States, who are his guilt. now convinced of However discredited he remains of state, head of govern- head ment and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He plans on staying in office, Watergate or no Watergate.

Anyone who wants him out of the White House-as do some Congressmen who have already started impeachment procedures —will have to drag him out kicking and screaming. The appointment of Haig, who served Henry Kissinger under as the administration's chief trouble shooter in Indo-China, most sinister signi- takes on a ficance in this context. US military The share all Nixon's contempt for the forms of capitalist democracy. Is Nixon planning to try and ride out the storm on their backs? Is he moving towards a form of personal rule based on close collaboration with military-a regime strong-man to sweep the scandal under the carpet? Such a regime could try to silence the Press, defy Congress and the Senate to try and put him out and hold the line the US working class against under conditions of rampant in- A CHARGE that the British Army smashed up St Paul's Secondary school in the Falls district of Belfast on Easter Saturday was made yesterday by Jack Dromey, executive member of Council for the National Civil Liberties. The army has denied responsibility. The NCCL passed an emer- gency resolution asking the gov- ernment to abandon the Emer- gency Provisions Bill, repeal the Special Powers Act and ensure freedom for all political groups contest elections and end to internment.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLE™

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

flation and growing militancy in the factories. No wonder the chief witnesses against the president, among them his former White House counsel, John Dean, are in fear for their lives. They know that Nixon will stop at nothing to retain his position at the head of his gangster regime. Watergate is the most serious scandal ever to surface in the United States. The administration, entire with Nixon at its head, con- undermine basic de- spired to mocratic rights on a vast scale in association with gangsters, crooked financiers and shady secret agents. Nixon's invocation of 'execu- tive privilege' has not stopped . the of testimony emergence implicating him at the directly centre of the plot. Dean has . evidence to given investigators Watergate that shortly after seven men were in- dicted for the break-in at Democratic headquarters he was president's summoned to the office and found Nixon and H. R. Haldeman 'all with his ability to 'keep the lid on'.

Dean quoted the president as him: 'Good job, having told John. Bob told me what a great job you've been doing.' Dean's evidence dovetails with an affidavit signed by Egil Krogh, former deputy to John Ehrlichman, who breached the 'executive privilege' ruling to implicate Nixon in planning the theft of files on Pentagon Papers defendant, Daniel Ellsberg. Krogh's affidavit apparently implicates Nixon in planning illegal surveillance of Elisberg as far back as August 1971. Watergate reveals the putrid decay behind the facade of the two-party system in the United States. The whole of American capi- talist politics is revealed as a rotten charade to dupe and ex- ploit the working class. American labour now faces its biggest challenge. Nixon • continue to rule can only with the tacit or active support of the right-wing trade union leaders and the Stalinists.

Those who supported Nixon Teamsters' like openly, the leader, Frank Fitzsimmonds, are implicated in directly scandal. The others, including the CP who lined up behind McGovern the elections, are tied to a policy of not rocking the boat completely oppose any break with the big business parties. need for a Congress of The Labour to break of relations be- tween the trade unions and the capitalist parties and opena mass campaign for a Labour Party is the real issue raised by Watergate. Only the building of a Labour Party can politically prepare the working class for the oppor- tunities and dangers in front.

NEWSLETȚER • MONDAY MAY 7, 1973

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC

Who's Who of Watergate: a worried N!

ex-White House counsel (above).

WHO IS GENEI

GENERAL Alexander Haig, the new chief of staff at the White House, previously ser- ved as deputy to Dr Henry Kissinger throughout the negotiations on the Indo- China ceasefire. He replaces H. R. Haldeman as the president's closest per- sonal aide and day-to-day head of the administration. His trans- fer from one of the highest Pen- this key posts to tagon symbolizes continued military backing for Nixon. With the exception of Kissin- ger's foreign affairs department virtually all the top men around CP Nixon have been implicated in the Watergate scandal. Among the people involved the former heads the are Justice Dep irtment, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and lead- ing members of the Central In- telligence Agency. Haig is now being promoted as 'Mr Clean' who can purge the scandal from the administra- tion and restore Nixon's credi- bility. Meanwhile, congressional and senate committees are exam- ining the affair and a whole of criminal cases series are pending. • No. 1065 • 4p

1E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

vorried Nixon (top left), ex-White House chief

¡ENERAL HAIG?

Haig It remains to be seen whether ride Nixon can out the crisis with the aid of Haig and John Connally, the tough Texan eX- who has just rallied governor in his support. " What is certain is that Nixon is now forced to rely more and more on the military, who have long cherished ambitions of tak- ing more power into their own hands. use chief Haldeman (right); John Dean, OUR fund has now slowed down to a snail's pace. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Northampton 10.00 Holloway 6.00 Southwark 8.00 ..... Slough 3.00 ••

SOGAT

members in Plough Press donated £78, bringing total our to £10,926.37. Please send all dona- tions to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 Stalinist treachery What we think in the EPTU be fooled by the Stalinists' claims that "Relations Act, the Common Market and THEat Total OppoSition to Me Tory Saar call now be accepted as the they are leading a fight against the right to the way defeat an incomes rents. that 'total opposition wing in the EPTU. It was Costello is lying. not nacea une The Stalinists collaborated with the union UnOR daws Was voled overwaeimnely Stalinises when seley held the leadersuip their corrupt the electricians' union conference win 80-per- cal tor mousta acuon lo leaders who lett practices when they

WOLACHS

Thursday nothing mora than cent pay rises. he did say was ast inke the gasmen and nospital ancıllary Stalinist conference delegates had voted that ol ine unon ano uy anther ot staey rep tatedy derended the teased.

CUVeI 101 picte increase membersnip by sucn acuons as sending 80-per-cent 'lefts'— sabotage oi the ngnt to ger ria or tne inemseives shen aero so pic alik strike bin t ts, Tories. their conference lees, anel Thererore Jones the strike in 1958, woen re retreatea on Issue ought to be willing to take on the gov- of dockers' jobs and Scanlon when he The only effective way to oppose the anti- behalf of the union's mem- who handed the leadership of the union publicly puert an amanded industrial relations declared Cullil vol laws mobilize the trade over to the right wing. union Dersaip force the The Stalinist leaders, both in the ETU moyenchl guyell- Act. Like the right wing, the Stalinist 'reporter' ment resign, and in King Street, created the condi-

TO N

Tev ace WILe Labour reat is preded o soyi aise A inber tion in Amil, thet Stalinistis seeks to present tnose wno want a rear the In LiOns Wuc! cus Plut wasce That fight against the Tories people who policies. precisely union Co-operated with Scanlon in composit like n,oodroth Nerd aie to utha the tore elf 'unrealistic' The truth make demands. Stalinists supported the Wyatt and Wille 'fighting refusing to vote for Stalinists sich out of existence all resolutions a resolution woose benne use Laik illal. Mr. Pearse, had declared the Act' is that the Chapple called for mass industrial action leadersnip bourgeois to take over the Ure state General Strike to bring down emerged to Phase a national deteat the government. Lend shio Cn hon anione er Stalinist le licalll of the Tory state pay laws.

Heath -happle ries. oppositi the TUC cod d never have b come che teldersi.

Cannon government. leW WeCKS

IWU

strike over wages ago the Stalinists voted in Sep reth tr sTat ese with the Tories. WITh InA rOnT remains tree To banco e o oe Ac nt tn! wing at the National Union of Teachers' Heath talks whose purpose is to tie the AUEW national of the EPTU but for Stalinism.

call working class to the state pay laws.

the to Join committee in April. the Stalinists Comel cucc asallisl The British Communist Party operates in jected and fought against the May I strike. Gemana The ey linear de iberot yesponsid foty his.

the intrestracy he coe tor-rev union, ary bureaucracy the the broken with th as Stalmest sid Union, the 'peaceful co- responsibility These are politics of broken Mick Cosio sace one Bragana 10 existence' these talks. At last September's Trades WnlO developea anu communist Harraway who agreed to drop motions of 'peaceful co-existence' Mnich Pormite eye ted le ders ula theories and

AUEW

talks with the Torles, woute awe the which outlawed more which permitted leaders 'parliamentary roads to The paragraph 'Morn- Strike collaboration historic task of resolving the crisis of General une Call. wroe. continue lucil wilk ing Star' reported approvingly: 'At no 'Only a handful of votes were cast" for Tories. since, they aver nave provided WOlKIY-CaSS cdcoll OrOC stage in any delegate tne cenate against state 'left" cover behind which Feather, end the capitalist system can never be con- Scanion that he (Scanlon) be barred been accomplished without ex- trol called for and Jones able Wasco. HUVeI from talking to the government.'

and fight against Stalinism and 80-ber-cent pay usta acher Cad lulale connolele

CLO

1 OLIC

DUDUIC

After all that, no serious worker should increases and wanted a General Strike the state pay laws, the Industrial al wo cabare ro . 300 join Indo-China march Arab leaders

MM NIST

clampdown

FAL

BR

NEOCHINA SENDAI

commandos

CONFERENCE

Franijeh government the renegotiation the want

BY A FOREIGN

Cairo 1969 which

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

astacucal

CORRESPONDENT

ended a previous round of right.

ing between the army and the imposed con- ARAB League secretary- siderable restrictions on the guer- general Mahmoud Riad nulas tree moveneor. Now Franijeh wants to the ng intervened yesterday to control the under government restore a precarious put relusee Camos walch under the control the Pales ceasefire in the Lebanon.

the 1969 tinian resistance ariccicl. He held talks with the But the Palestinian resistance Lebanese government ana arty they not ngaiers nave sala WIll commanders and with leaders compromise on this demand. of the Palestinian commandos.

The Lebanese government's Suleiman Franjeh President tight- actions represent a turthel the Pales. nas doe ea lidl ee oí oe vev vvv eden Lian tinian movement will the tinian movement. future be even more tightly con- Franijeh, like the rest of the trolled than betore Arab bourgeoisie, is completely He told Riad: When took the subser vient recureuculs office to preserve the the imperialists pre- and this and pared to his 'Arab

ABOUT

300 people marched ouvei cigally vulLiy of good brothers' for the sake US and South Viet- latero ro do so. s win nol allon Cambodian troops the rise of a state within a state.'

namese embassies on Saturday Te arons me onsa imperialis protest the continuing aggression in Indo- Grigorenko to remain Ullik. Speakers at a pre-march rally

TWO

Cambodian govern- desert in included Traialgar Souare ment battalions, totalling at the representatives in psychiatric prison China Solidarity Conference, least 500 men, have dis- Peace Committee, appeared completely on the cause of low cloud. latiol cucc…l the Communist Party, Inter- east bank of the Mekong The of the

SATT

HOnSOOl Marxist Group and hospital, difficult in a prison psychiatric season makes more River, not far from Indian Workers Association. Phnom informed sources said in Moscow for the Lon Nol puppet govern- yesterday. Contingents were sent by Penh. nicul wica ContrOls alca

IMG,

The said the the running three miles to the east of sources court branches Jute- CP and the in national Socialism, the and seven miles to the January been lauc ine units, wilch nac Communist of the west. the river's east bank 25 miles neoreako s absence. •UT Britain (Marxist-Leninist).

only about April the south-east, have been Nol Lor stito atreaden his when his wife Zinaida came to Maynard, a member of Joan listea as missing. US 'advice -to the hospital the agricultural workers' union orodes

VISI

null. regime. and The Cambodian puppet authori- Chernyakhovsk, tine •Kanin- geadersnD grad area not far from the Polish executive of the Labour Party, ties claim they were overwhelmed Last weet ne nan accusong said Watergate by a gas attack, but mass deser- with the so-called Supreme

OUL UCL

showed something of the liberation dubbed General Grigorenko, his CU1 Lull

1OICES

Council, by some obser- more plausible

TUDOR

Aenean societ seens Tal Municinal mic ous nas veer a ge ool| vers which had been demonstrated explanation. Perea of rule. for over three years. Phnom Penh view of its in what the US did in Vietnam. restricted ent ime vender in the 19005, .American An spotter Taria Ali, secretary, Dianes were with- sent to trace them but said Nixon should not be tried cissicent movemeot u he protested against the Soviet- just common criminal, as success LaLel Lacuca alle PAKISTANI police rounded brought led of Czechoslovakia craft were in bomb invasion would is now seeto uke y ne pro-Sihanouk forces nearby. several hundreds-and possibly the championed be, but as a war criminal.

1700. allu thousands- Bengalis in a big Crimean cause of the Tatars, 'Our task Islamabad in Fresh fighting was reported small Soviet deported to seculily Uptidliul said, in- countries, he Stalin. central Asia by done e meko e subooe roule eariy yesterday. and diminish as the puppet forces face rocket creast

AUL

OUL

Grigorenko He in Tashkent was infantry within three A government spokesman said arrested sondarity action with the inao- teams SPECIAL court has extended May 1969 and charged with Chinese people-and to make they were being taken to two Hes ul r muon. r clu anti-Soviet the work- three 'in preparation detention was it absolutely clear to places indehnıtely lilt The US Air Force was unable Major-General Pyotr n coreno. declaree rall y

LLC

1101

BEC-CES

movenden!

US CIE

Steli LuCIl cvcllud. IC alliotil once a leading Soviet dissident, lowing February. struggle is our struggle.'

to Bangladesh'. to somo arouno onon rea e.

BY IAN YEATS

July 7 will be a decisive day for the 700 men still employed by the British Steel Corporation at the Newport Tube Works, South Wales. It will also be a day which will make or break the anti-redun- dancy policies of the 13 steel unions and the unofficial national dele- gate committee. Both are pledged to rally the strongest possible support to men at any location threatened with closure. 'If we don't get backing one way or the other that will be the end of our fight,' action committee secre- tary Mr Joe Parry told me.

'About 700 men will just walk out of the gate for good.'

If it doesn't sound much like fighting talk, it is because the men at Newport Tubes are battle-weary. Since they were of first told the plant's closure on Friday, January 7, 1972, at 10.30 a.m., about half 1,200-strong workforce the have been sacked. Most of these were the younger men. Some were found work at other BSC plants like Llanwern, Some found jobs out of the industry. Others went into the army or navy. About 300 are still on the dole.

And during the same period, action committee members saw every conceivably relevant MP and trade union leader to lobby for the retention of the works. They also organized one of the biggest protest marches Newport has ever seen. Gomersal pit, near Brad- ford, Yorkshire, is being closed following the Lofthouse disaster in which seven men died. Like Lofthouse, Gomer- sal workings are close to old pit shafts and the Na- tional Coal Board now says there is danger of flooding. Most of the men-380 in doing maintenance work which is now almost Sixty men are being complete. sent to Kellingley colliery, 30 Wheldale, 30 to Fryston and 30 to Sharlton. These pits are in the Castle- Knottingley areas and involve at least two hours' travelling a day. Mr Barry Wilson, president branch, of Gomersal NUM told Workers Press: "The Board is picking off pits one by one. St John's, Normanton, is to close and now Gomersal is threatened.

The NCB is closing down all its seam pits. here are fed up 'The men with moving from pit to pit One miner has been moved through five pits. When some miners were moved here from Thornhill pit, they were told was 25 to 30 years that there of life left in Gomersal.

'The Lofthouse disaster is being used as an excuse to close Gomersal', Mr Wilson lot of experi- continued. "A mental machinery has been ea The channels of protest are familiar; so are the depressing results. Today there is less than a week's work at the plant and from now on the mainly ageing workforce will watch helplessly as the plant is re- morselessly run down. For almost all of them closure will mean long months and even years on the dole. Some may never work again

KEPT SECRET

During their long campaign, the Newport men found that even protest was a right which had to be fought for. At first they claim the BSC refused to give them the detailed grounds on which the plant was being After the Iron and closed. Steel Trades Confederation (ex- BISAKTA) intervened, there• was a six-months reprieve for social reasons. Next, on July 18, 1972, the men's representatives put their case against closure to a select committee of the House of Commons. The Committee sympathized, but said it was not empowered to make re- commendations - merely to examine the facts. Broadly, the facts were that BSC said the demand for the type of tubes made at Newport was shrinking and that as a result production would be concentrated at Cambuslang, near Glasgow. The works' action commit- tee denied all of this and added that the plant had a 29-year record of profitability and that there had been no serious strike for half a century.

All the time the action committee leaders were lobbying indivi- Rescue team during operations to free used here and this has made losses-mainly because they did not listen to the advice of the miners on where to use it. Gomersal is the latest pit to close in this area. Others have been Old Roundwood, Shaw Cross, Thornhill and Shuttle Eye. 'The are being miners turned into nomads' says Mr Wilson. 'Coal Board policy is to take the easy coal and leave the rest, like an old man who eats the soft bit of bread and Members of Newport Tubes Action Com duals as well from ISIC general secretary Sir David Davies to Labour leader Harold Wilson.

Right from the start they ruled out direct action, such as strikes, as being harmful to their case. Instead they com- mitted • their entire effort to producing facts and graphs to refute BSC's reasons for clos- ing Newport. Their one aim was to have both cases sub- independent mitted to an assessor whom they were con- fident would be forced-from facts-to come out on the their side. They have not been given an • independent inquiry and the they chances are never will. learned the And they have hard way that Labour leaders out of power have nothing to dispense but sympathy. Most of all they have learned is to free seven miners who died in the disast leaves the crust. There are re- serves of coal at Gomersal but these are going to be left.?

Gomersal miner, Another Italian Mr Spolverato Bruno, has worked in pits in this country for 22 years. He told us: •My father was persecuted by the fascists and I have been a socialist all my life. 'We must keep that hole in the ground open. There must be no more closures.' The Gomersal men have suggested that they all be put ind on the same shift-probably Th Workers Press, ction Committee formed to fight closure.

that with all their facts and figures and talk of an oil bonanza off the Welsh coast to push up the demand for tubes, a single works commit- tee is powerless to influence the government-backed master plan for steel. Now the action committee leaders themselves admit that after 12 months of reformist protest, even if they called for militant action at the works they almost certainly wouldn't get it.

INVESTIGATION

But a ray of hope appeared ' at the end of their particular tunnel two weeks ago when ISTC agreed to investigate all closures depth. Where closures are found to be jus- tified, the union pledged its support in pressing for full the disaster at Lotthouse colliery.

Kellingley pit. They at say there has been some friction Kellingley because at the transferred men have started later and finished earlier be- cause of travelling time.

But Gomersal NUM branch has also called for a York- shire-wide miners' strike against closures on May 14.

This call was approved by the north Yorkshire Panel of the NUM on April 16. It now before the goes union's National Executive Committee, which meets next Thursday (May 10). ers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 PAGE 3 alternative jobs to be made available. Furthermore, when the national action committees met at Shotton last month, they pledged to rally to the aid of any location threatened with • shut-down. 'It means a strike, Joe Parry explained. 'If there's no strike over Newport Tubes, they won't get it for Cardiff, Ebbw Vale or any- else. They'll all be where finished. Some of the men are still hoping for a reprieve so that a Welsh oil boom can, have a chance of proving the works viable after all. Others are hop- ing only that someone, some- where can be persuaded or forced through a national alternative strike to provide work in steel and in the locality.

WORKERS' CONTROL

The sorest point of all among the Newport men is the fact that, whatever their fate, it is being determined by a nationalized industry. 'It's disgusting,' said militant young action committee mem- ber Mike Anderson. 'I thought the whole idea of nationalized industries was to absorb un- employment. They belong to the people. 'We've got a right to work industries should and these absorb us. I don't think nation- alization or the idea of worker- directors has worked properly.

'The nationalized industries should be put under proper workers' control. They should be run by shop stewards' com- mittees. 'Policy is being decided at the grass roots at the moment.

People say return a Labour government, but you've got to ask what kind of Labour gov- ernment. 'Nationalization under wor- kers' control will be an tssen- tial part of their manifesto' Meanwhile the 700 men wait helplessly to see which of the titans of the trade union move- ment—official or unofficial- will call the only action cap- able of saving their jobs. As Joe Parry said: 'If there's no strike, that will be the end of Newport Tubes.'

REFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

- REFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

'Reformism on the Clyde' the first exposure of Com- munist Party tactics at the UCS work-in. It shows how a powerful challenge to the Tories degenerated into a reformist protest. It exam- ines the records of the men who led the struggle, James Reid, James Airlie and Sammy Barr. Price 30p, 128 pages, illustrated.

Available from: New Park Publications 186a, Clapham High Street London, SW4 7UG or the Paperbacks Centre 28 Charlotte Street London, W1 (Enclose 10p for postage)

GRAPES OF WRATH 1973

PAGE 4

Workers Press, Monday May

BY OUR FOREIGN

CORRESPONDENT

INTRODUCTION BY J. GALE

The United Farm Workers' union (UFW) was founded by Cesar Estrada Chavez in 1962, and was based on the Latin - American and Mexican-American | workers in the Delano area of California. By fighting on domestic issues, such as rents, welfare and education, it built up sup- port among 2,200 families.

Its real test, however, came with the Delano Grape Strike.

In May 1965, a strike of Fili- pino workers at Thermal was defeated. But four months after that defeat, over 1,000 Filipino workers walked out of the fields at Delano and eight days later were joined by the

UFW.

The struggle became General Strike in the grape fields for $1.40 an hour plus a 25c-a-box bonus for the har- vest season. The main enemies were the Fruit Corporation DiGiorgio and the Schenley Corporation.

The most powerful of these was DiGiorgio, which owned some 30,000 acres. Three of its officials were directors of the Bank of America, and one of them-Carl Wente-was the bank's vice-president. Other leading figures in the DiGiorgio Corporation had key connec- tions with the Pacific Gas and Electricity Company and the Pacific Telephone Company.

Other top employers were the Kern County Land Com- acres), the pany (348,000 Tejon Ranch (Los Angeles Times-Mirror) with 168,500 nday May 7, 1973 Perelli-Minetti, and acres, Christian Brothers. The owners fought the strikers with evictions-the bosses were also the slum land- lords—while cars tried to run bosses' down pickets and agents sprayed strikers with sulphur. But the strike spread over 400 square miles of vine- yards. On the 100th day of the strike, the UFW called for a nation-wide boycott of Delano and associated pro- grapes Before the strike had ducts. gone six months, 4,500 workers were involved and boycott centres had been established in 30 states. On April 6, 1966, the Schen- Corporation signed an ley recognizing the agreement Two months later,

UFW.

contract for a $2-an-hour rise was won. DiGiorgio, stuck however, out as the main enemy. and violence against the strikers was intensified. Substantial financial support was given to the strikers by United Auto-Workers. the Then, in June 1966, the UFW affiliated the

AFL-CIO

to (America's TUC). Meanwhile the leaders of the Teamsters' Union were doing all they could to break the strike. They sent in scabs and reached 'back-door' agreements with DiGiorgio and Perelli- Minetti, while farmworkers in organized by the Salinas, were paid poverty Teamsters, wages of $1.12 an hour. The battle for recognition of the UFW lasted eight years be- fore it was finally won. Then, following the Delano Grape Strike, the UFW led the lettuce and strawberry workers in the Salinas valley in a strike which broke out on August 24, 1970. The immediate cause was a contract signed by the Team- sters' Union leaders which favoured their members and left the farm workers uncon- sulted and undereut. strike This fought was against powerful 'agri-business' —the merger of farming with big business. Three of the largest fruit companies in the States were involved—United Fruit, S. S.

Pierce and Purex Corporation.

United Fruit profits the pre- vious year had been $30m. firms had sought to These clinch a deal with the Team- sters whereby the latter would supply the workers, keep the peace in the fields and keep the UFW out. Over 3,000 workers were in- volved in the struggle and at one point a Monterey County Court threatened to jail union leader Cesar Chavez for life without trial if he failed to call off a lettuce boycott. The union had launched the boy- cott after the employers had won a Superior Court injunc- tion against picketing. Despite all this, Chavez con- tinued to preach non-violence in the face of the employers' brutal assaults, refused to break politically from the Democratic Party, mounted no against the right-wing fight leadership of the AFL-CIO and continually directed his appeals towards liberals and church- men. The chief obstacle to the fruit workers remains his re- formist politics, even though some limited gains were made under his leadership. Chavez insisted that politics be 'kept out' of the struggle.

When students flocked to the fields to assist the strikers against scabs and the bosses' strong-arm men, they were warned by Chavez not to 'politicize' among the strikers.

And 'El Malcriado, the UFW's paper, declared on January 13, 1967: "The idea that each man is to some ex- tent responsible for the well- being of all other men is a basic leftist idea ... examples of left-wing people are Martin Luther King and President John Kennedy ... also, organ- izations such as the AFL-CIO are on the left.? On June 2, 1966, 'El Mal- criado' told the fruit workers: 'Henry Ford has learned to pay high wages and bargain with the unions, and still make all- time profits, millions of dollars Growers should every year. follow his advice and example?

By statements such as this, and by his continual expres- sions of admiration for Robert Kennedy, Chavez spread illu- sions about the fruit growers' enemies and the system they maintained. the employers Nevertheless, still fear the union. Last year, the employers' Farm Bureau drew up measure to outlaw the UFW and to make unionization of California's farm labourers virtually impossible. Under Californian law this was put to a state ballot as Proposition 22. Despite a employers' heavily-financed campaign, the proposition was decisively rejected. Meanwhile, the farm work- ers of California continue their fight. Coachella — This small community, farming ity, 150 miles south east of Los Angeles, has be- come the centre of a new stage in the Californian farmworkers' battle to defend the United Farm Workers union (UFW) and the limited gains Cesar made under Chavez's leadership in the eight-year struggle to Io organize. Just three years ago this month the UFW signed its first major contract, and the Coachella valley vineyards have been the basis of union strength ever since. A year later the UFW made an important informal agree- ment with the Teamsters, un- der which field hands would belong to the UFW and workers in the packing sheds and more mechanized jobs would belong to the Team- sters. The UFW contract expired at midnight on Saturday April 14 and the second agreement was broken abruptly the next day when the Western Confer- of Teamsters in Los ence Angeles announced 'sweetheart contracts' with a majority of the valley's 32 growers who cent of produce 85 per Coachella's table grape harvest.

four-year The agricultural contract is the Teamsters' first in the valley and was an- nounced only a short time after the termination of five days' futile negotiations between the growers and the UFW.

Monday the renegotiation of its con- tract with the largest grower In the area, a prominent liberal, Lionel Steinberg, who was the first to sign up three years ago.

The UFW contract covers approximately 15 per cent of the Coachella crop. Monday Afternoon, Chavez announced a strike against all non-UFW vineyards in the valley. Although only 12 per cent of California's table grapes are grown in the Coachella valley, 80 per cent of the country's grapes on sale from May to July come from this desert area only 80 miles north of the Mexican border. At stake then is the union label on 3 million boxes of the representation of grapes, 5,500 farmworkers in some the valley during the peak harvest season in late June •.. and the very existence of the UFW. On the Monday night, a packing house nearby Thermal, valued at $740,000 and belonging to a grower who had signed up with the Teamsters, was burned to the ground. Riverside County sheriffs have been given 12 hour shifts and no days off, and police helicopters buzz nightly the vineyards over guarding against further 'van- dalism' As dozens of Teamster 'organizers' stand behind sheriff lines in the vineyards, hundreds of spirited farmworkers of all ages, carrying the UFW's bright crimson and black banners, march along the highway on the edge of the field as their bullhorns blare the message in Spanish of the 'true union' to workers a considerable distance back who have been brought 60 miles from Brawley to thin the quickly-ripening grapes in scorching sun. Teamster Frank Fitzsimmons, president: will not accept UFW challenge to hold open elections in the fields. Despite Tuesday's restrain- ing order which barred effective picketing, 311 arrests had been made when, late Friday (April 20) the same judge dropped all charges for trespassing, cancelled the restraining order released and all pickets through the intervention of AFL-CIO attorney Jerome Cohen. There can be little question that the UFW commands the support of the Coachella valley farmworkers, most of whom are Chicanos-Mexican Americans.

A meeting the week before the strike of more than 1,000 in Coachella's ageing high school auditorium gave Chavez unanimous authorization to proceed with the UFW's efforts to drive the Teamsters out of the valley's fields. At some 40 vineyards picketed the first day, only two crews refused to walk off and join the UFW.

The Teamster organizer, Al is the Droubie, cousin Coachella grower Dave Valdera.

While UFW 'strategy sessions' workers, include 600 the Teamsters and the growers hold secret meetings which brought into the valley power- ful growers from other parts of California. They will neither reveal with been whom agreements have reached nor release copies of the contract. While national Teamster president Frank Fitzsimmons, 'welcomes a national investi- by Left: Chavez and United Farm Workers' gation', the union will not accept the. UFW challenge to open elections in hold the fields. Teamsters have driven wor- kers back into the fields when they attempted to walk off in support of the pickets. The UFW introduced 23 affadavits into court alleging such harass- ment and intimidation with 'guns, knives, clubs, baseball bats, grape stakes and other dangerous instruments'. The UFW charged that the 1970 Teamster organizing drive in the Salinas lettuce fields was prompted by two bribes to Teamster $1,500 officials. Although local teamsters remain uninvolved, rank-and- file teamsters are brought in from Los Angeles at $67.50 a day to protect the scabs against the UFW. The team- sters spend considerable time in their camps, well supplied with beer which, in the words of one farmworker, 'makes them drunk so they will fight against us' This reporter found the teamsters receptive to critic- ism of Fitzsimmons' support for Nixon, but very defensive which they about their role, pass off as 'defending Teamster workers in Teamster fields'.

The Teamsters imply the issue is simply a jurisdictional one; the UFW say it is a simple question of 'Mafiosa bribery; neither is correct. It is no accident that the latest Teamster decision to increase organizing efforts in Coachella was made in Decem- shortly after the Nixon administration began to map out its strategy to phase out the decades-old farm subsidy programme so that the US's highly-efficient agricultural sec- tor could become the spearhead of its coming trade war with industrially efficient more Japan and the Common Market countries in order to reduce its $6.8 billion trade deficit.

Accelerating food production in the US will simply increase the rate of mechanization in agriculture. At the same time field workers' wages will have to be driven down along with ns those of other workers- through inflation and the wage freeze. . The Teamsters are prepar- ing to channel the few field workers who will receive more mechanized jobs into Fitz- simmons' support for Nixon's trade war. The tens of thousands of present field workers thrown pool of the expanding into rural unemployed will be left sti- by the Teamsters to the UFW, re Workers' Union pickets in Co Teamster Fitzsimmons' lined here, suits Nix would prefe pian. ne farmworkers in bureaucratized union Fitzsimmons or the more populist-oriented UF which the rank and soon press for more policies than those sued by Chavez. tying the persistent struggle of armworkers to the JD Party and middle-cla is responsible for the by gains made agricultural decade nearly struggle. While Fitzsimmons to disorient workers direct Chavez's support gressional liberals, their demonstraTe capacity to stand up Indo-China, ^ t over freeze, impoundment gate, disarms the farr This at a time struggle agalnst will become controntation with administration's need resent the interests of capital as a whole- mortal combat with it abroad discipline the Amerio movement. Since the Stalini munist Party of Chavez's strategy, surprising to find tha coast Stalinist weekly World' feature o survey in the Coach vales. Democratic three men who participate poll-taking. Chavez's Coachella with coincides Meany who, after a belated, begrudged gardly workers" lonel lonely driven by the push to sena to dozen national cluding Bill Kircher of Organization, ington DC. In a Washington ference, Chavez, Democratic Edward Roybal join for a Senate Teamster moves, to Committee o Senate Welfare and has responded. els in Coachella Valley. Ri the CuTTenT out- suits Nixon's own ula preler to nave highly- a under than or a Hoffa democratic and

UFW

within ank and file will or more farsiohter now pur- and _vularcous ruggle of American to the Democratic riddle-class protest by America's poor through ecade of militant workers with for Nixon, for who daily utter in- Nixon China, ' the wage undment or Water- s the farmworkers. when their the growers increasingl Nixon the n's need to rep- terests of American whole-locked in having e American labour Stalinist Com- has always sup- aspect strategy, it is not find that the west 'People's st weekly the most reature ot a recent Coachella vine- over wne mingly UFW, to be the Congress- articipated in the Coachella strategy that of George after a decade of and nig- the farm- battle, was Teamster ad to Coachella a organizers in- Kircher, Director tion, from Wash- hington Press con- Kircher and Congressman ybal jointly called te investigation of which the mittee on Labour has graciously Workers Press, I Valley. Right: Teamsters guarding scab grape | A Coachella field represent- ative the International Labourers' and Hodcarriers' Union frankly assessed Kir- cher's role in the coming battles in the valley's fields and the corresponding AFL- CIO lack of strategy: 'He even looks like he just bopped out of his air con- ditioned office, ripped off his tie, forgot his big per diem expense account and feels he's with the real people on the line of fire. All the AFL-CIO has to do is place a few strategic phone calls to all the local affiliates, and we'd close the whole thing down in sup- port of the farmworkers.'

While the 'liberal' grower Steinberg prepares to add to the spiralling rise in the cost of food and blame it on the farmworkers — his contract 'substantially increases the farmers' costs' — Chavez calls for a resumption of the grape boycott of the late 196Us, which the federal government countered, in far less perilous times, with massive purchases for the US Armed Services.

Typical of its own drifting orientation to the middle class, 'Militant, organ of the the Socialist Workers revisionist Party, attributes the UFW 1970 contracts exclusively to the liberal boycott effort, 'which forced the growers to sign', rather than to the farm- workers' strike efforts. Neither the Teamster nor

UFW

contract drives Coachella offers any solution to the farmworkers caught in the tightening vice between rampant inflation and the not lowest wages in the economy.

The Teamsters' contract supposedly will bring a four year increase to $2.70 from the current $2.30 an hour-along with the hated labour con- tractor system. The UFW introduced the welcomed hiring rate, $2.40 an hour and 25 cents a box, up from the $2 of the last con- tract. These wages are little than Nixon's more current for a national proposals minimum wage and completely inadequate today to support a farmworker and his, often large, family which he must leave in the barrio or take with him chasing the seasons along California's freeways. As one migrant from Delano expressed it: I can't live on $1.65 an hour with everything going higher. When we ask for higher wages the bosses say: "If you don't like the work, go somewhere else"? The Coachella farmworkers must begin with the inter- national crisis of capitalism and the role Nixon expects rs Press, Monday May 7, 1973 PAGE 5 ab grape pickers. American agriculture to play in his attempts to glut the markets of highly industrialized with cheap competitors US food products. Farmworkers and teamsters alike will increasingly face the 'of determined policy the Federal government, backed by both the Democrats and Republicans, to couple vicious attacks on their current wages with the already uncontrollable rise in the cost of living.

They must join together against union their current leadership to fight to build a national political organization, which alone can provide the framework to prepare them- selves for the historical tasks ahead - their own Labour Party. Despite his strategy to bust the UFW, Fitzsimmons can- not escape the growing dis- content in his own ranks over his wage agreement with Nixon in January. Within the UFW, the older farmworkers have demon- strated their patience and determination. When asked how long the struggle for decent wages and living con- ditions would continue, one elderly veteran of many crim- son and black fluttering picket lines responded: .. • a long time ... a hundred years.

But among the younger members of farmworkers' families, a hundred years more of stooping ten hours a day in the hot California sun to fill the neon-lighted shelves of the country's supermarkets in order to be told by Teddy Kennedys to mind the priest when he tells them to get down on their knees as the sheriff approaches to throw in the their bright banners golden brown California dust as he leads them off to the paddy wagon . .. a hundred years more of that to get a fair day's wages is too long.

A bottle thrown against a shiny new Oldsmobile full of jeering strikebreakers, few a rocks thrown at the police by impatient youth in their early teens-beneath the surface of 'non-violence' lies the liberal a new generation which is pre- paring itself for the tasks posed by the coming revolutionary decade. This militancy must find its appropriate political expression in coming fight to unite the all working people in a Labour Party, to nationalize all agricul- country's ture and use the millions of acres of farmland and hundreds of thousands of pairs of willing hands to create a life of abundance and leisure for all.

THE WATCH ON THE CLYDE

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday May 7

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

We thought it just words, but it's not just words. These people mean business.' This was the verdict from one experienced boilermaker on the situation in the ship- yards on the upper Clyde. It is over six months sınce the work-in ended and the honey- the new between moon em- ployers and the yard labour force is rapidly coming to an end. Managements are beginning to drop the 'pals act' and insist that the two agreements signed by the former UCS stewards' co-ordinating shop committee mean exactly what they say-a massive break- down in craft demarcation heralding an enormous in- crease in productivity. And in their efforts to make the words work, they have found familiar allies. The situation is most criti- cal at Govan Shipbuilders, the firm headed by oil boss Lord Strathalmond, which took over three of the old UCS divisions-Govan, Linthouse and Scotstoun. Govan Shipbuilders want to drive up productivity by 120 Iday May 7, 1973 which, cent-the level per according to the Swedish con- sultants Maynard's, will make the yard viable. At two divisions, Govan and Linthouse, on the south side of the Clyde, time-and-motion studies are almost completed.

Management hopes to hold a meeting soon and re- board veal plans for re-vamping wor- king practices and the yard lay-out to the five-man nego- tiating committee. the boilermakers, Only traditionally the pace-makers in the yards and still jealous of independence, their hold re- servations. At Govan's third there division, Scotstoun, has been strong opposition to what shipyard workers call 'the watch' . Scotstoun workers have never accepted time and motion, but now management, with the help of the shop ste- wards' leadership headed by (Communist Sammy Barr, Party member of work-in fame) is timing the men. This struggle over time and motion, however, has revealed a new and dangerous tendency within . the trade union move- ment. It was the Scotstoun boiler- makers who held out the longest against 'the watch'. At two mass meetings they rejec- ted work-study, despite warn- ings from Barr that time and motion was written into the original agreement. Eventually the conflict reached the point of confron- tation when the men walked out in protest against a deci- sion to send industrial engi- neers into the yards. It was this time that Bart, around on behalf of the majority of shop stewards, brought for- ward his amazing plan. He told workers that the doing the timing would men And, in- be from the ranks. deed, this turned out to be the Workers, in some cases case. ex-shop stewards, have been positions in elevated to staff order to time their work- One man on the boiler- mates. makers' stop-watch is the shipwrights' shop former steward! This procedure has shocked militants. They point out that the use of union men to time other union members is un- precedented in British indus- try, let alone the shipyards.

This outcome, however, is entirely in line with earlier developments. Towards the end of the UCS struggle it became clear that the co-ordi- in parti- nating committee, Communist cular the three Barr, Party leaders, James Airlie and James Reid, had embraced an essentially cor- poratist philosophy. According to them class struggle in the yards could be subordinated to a bout of co-operation be- tween employers and men for the greater glory of shipbuild- ing on the upper reaches of the river. The stewards' latest action -their insistance that the agreement must be honoured to the letter and their deci- sion to promote the new breed 'worker time-and-motion op men' , represents these policies in action. Clearly management would have faced a confrontation if it had attempted to bring in time and motion to the boiler- workers' trades at Scotstoun.

the stewards have done Now the job. The aim of the exer- is to cise, says management, find out the 'anomalies' with the work force and iron them out'. In fact the system involves speed-up and new working practice that will make the in- creadle izu per cent produc tivity possible. Barr increase and conipany the com- pany's greatest allies in this attempt. The move is doubly dia- bolical because it takes place Tory plans for state under the control of wages. The other row in the yards is Workers money. the understood that Origilai agreements promised either wage rise or à rise in by April: But earnings man- agement has refused extra on both issues. First it says that the _gov- which is still ernment- finan- cing. the project- -will allow increases until the drastic bid to boost productivity.

and break down traditional rights is under way. Secondly it argues that wage or bonus increases would be Phase impossible under near Two of the Tory wage con- trols anyway. Thirdly it says that workers should shut up and prepare for Phase three by co-operat- ing with management over a new productivity deal SU claim for a rise can be lodged September. Even then there is no promise over pay or bonus. In other words Govan Ship- builders offering nothing but beet the The unions' silence over Issue Is те- vealing. Only the boilermakers Bar Sammy —portrayed of course the left: as villains then universal (and Harbin, hel the rank-and-file boiler- of Clydeban Ollly

in- luc- arr om- this dia- lace tate urds cers inal г а nus lan - xtra ,ov- an- low stic and ghts age be lase con- kers pare rat- т а • a Iged ven over hip- hing ons' re- kers Sammy Barr who Introduced men from the Above left: Mass meeting in August 197 then Harbin, Reid and McGarvey at Press con iler- of Clydebank yard. makers with one or not- able exceptions the among putting. up any stewards)-are this naked fight against at- tempt to destroy wage rates and basic rights. situation at Marathon The Manufacturing- -which took Clydebank yard- the -iS also one of brooding antici- The most immediate pation. is redundancies. crisis over The 350 workers still left with UCS liquidator the finishing off the few remaining vessels paid between being now and June. Marathon says it would reconsider employing them if they could all retrain The steel workers. four- as year, no-strike contract at Marathon has been waved in the face of boilermakers who object to this erosion of their This craft position. provides for a massive re-training pro- gramme. So far it is stalemate. Local boilermakers' officials will do from nothing without orders Danny McGarvey. their leader Meanwhile the steel trade men are villified in the local Press.

The changes Marathon wants to make may well be more sweeping than those proposed by Govan Shipbuild- At present the 1,300 la- ers. bour force lout of an original 2,500 hourly-paid staff at UCS Clydebank a near-50 per cent engaged in oil-rig cut) are building or reconstruction. Marathon's Texan manage- en from the ranks to time their fellow workers.

has come in in typical lugust 1971 votes for occupation.

Abore right: ment American style. The first step Press conference announcing Harbin's takeover was to introduce the hat sys- Workers Press, M tem. Workers on reconstruc- tion get a yellow hat, men on production a blue hat, main- workers a green hat, tenance supervision on production a white hat and an orange hat is reserved for the staff. The yard from the top of a crane looks like a heaving mass of chocolate smarties. But it is not all gimmicks.

The workers have been called since the to one mass meeting Marathon deal was signed last year and then only to hear James Fox, the lean US boss, tell them of their future.

He reminded the workers that there were too many crafts at Marathon and too many men in some crafts. As for wages-well in some of Marathon's yards, said Fox, men got less than the Clyde- bank rate and then in others they got more. For the pre- sent they were satisfied with the bargain, he said. Workers are now thinking carefully about the implica- tions of the statement. In the absence of any lead fron the stewards, headed by Reid, they are yery much on their own. The struggles on the Clyde are clearly far from over. The Stalinist leaders who turned an enormous outburst of anger against the government into Workers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 PAGE 7 a reformist protest, have now reached a further low in clas collaboration. They have be- come the direct agents of the employers and by their active promotion plans, they are bringing cor- poratism to the yards. This could eventually in- volve the destruction ot all in crafts, protective practices a massive increase in produc- of redun- tivity and a future dancy. This development is since it especially treacherous takes place at a time when the union leadership is co- trade operating with corporatist plans at national level. Paradoxically, it is perhaps the traditional conservatism of the boilermakers that is the this main to pro- obstacle capitalist strategy. is But such conservatism of bitter based on a history struggle for rights and condi- No shipyard worker will boiler- deny that was the makers who pioneered pay and conditions in the yards.

It is not for nothing that are employers everywice watching the upper Clyde to see It te two compares can break the steel trades' resis- tance and maintain one rate for the job and eventually produce one 'all-purpose yard worker. In this period such 'conser- vatism', rediscovers of some its fighting past and may well to become the main obstacle its the employing class and Communist Party allies.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday May 7 A series by Bernard Franks Part six. Continuing our list of Britain's largest retailers, we have :

ALLIED SUPPLIERS LTD:

2,100 shops, 33,000 staft. Profits for year to April 1972, £10,264,000, an increase of 45 per cent over the previous year.

This company began life as Home & Colonial Stores, which with it now includes along Lipton's. The number of shops owned has been cut back from around 4,000 in the 1950s, closing three for every one opened in The group has recent years. a massive amount on spent rationalization and has close links with property companies.

It was taken over by the Cavenham Group in 1972. SEARS: 59,000 employees, Profits for 1971-1972 £37.864m, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year. Headed by Charles Clore, the property magnate, Sears owns the British Shoe Corpor- ation with its 2,000 stores. Its subsidiaries include Freeman, Manfield, Hardy & Willis, Saxone, Trueform, Dolcis, Cur- Lilley & Skinner and tess, Cable. Its bid for William Timson, controlling 400 shoe shops, has gone to the Monopolies Com- mission. Charles Clore Other firms owned by Sears are Mappin and Webb (jewell- ers) Garrad (jewellers) and William Hill (bookmakers).

Sears controls 22 per cent of retail footwear sales, 8 per cent of national shoe produc- tion and 12 per cent of retail shoe outlets. In 1972 it was Britain's 30th largest company. UNITED DRAPERS: More than 1,000 shops and depart- ment stores. 32,000 employees.

Profits for 1971-1972 £17.45m, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year. Shops owned by the group include the John Collier (tailors) chain, Claude Alexan- der, the chain of 132 Richard Shops (ladies fashions), John order, Myers mail Telstar Colour Television, John Far- mer's footwear chain of 49 shops and department stores including Gorringes and Wil- liam Whiteley's.

MARKS AND SPENCER: 248

stores, 35,500 employers. Pro- fits for 1971-1972 £53.7m, an increase of 7 per cent over Marks, a Polish Michael Jewish immigrant, had been a pedlar before setting up a stall in Kirkgate Market, Leeds, in 1884, with the aid of Dewhurst the butcher. He sold household articles-clothes pegs, buttons, candles, soap, all at a penny.

He later linked up with Thomas Spencer, a cashier in a Yorkshire textile firm, to form a series of such penny bazaars. day May 7, 1973 In 1917, his Simon son Marks and son-in-law Israel Sieft played a leading part in the Zionist movement as col- laborators with Chaim Weitz- mann, later to be the first President of Israel.

THE BURTON GROUP: 850

shop, 26,902 employees. Profits for 1971-1972 £7,426m, 16 per cent increase on the previous year. They own Peter Robinson, Browns of Chester, Orange Hand, Jackson the Tailor, Evans Outsize and Rymans, the office suppliers. In 1971, the group began introducing a pro- gramme for productivity and modernization and for selling off uneconomic properties, sell- ing one building in Park Lane for £2.4m. WOOLWORTH'S: 1,113 stores, 84,120 employees (50 per cent part-time), Profits for Decem- ber 1972 before tax £40.63m, (an increase of 9 per cent over previous year). Britain's 31st largest firm in 1972. During 1971-1972 the con- version from counter-service to cash-and-wrap was made in 777 stores and 73 stores were extended and modernized. Six hypermarkets are in operation under the name 'Woolco' and the firm is lobbying for plan- ning permission for more.

The largest so far is 114,000 sq. ft. The surplus arising from 1971 revaluation of the a company's properties was £45,642,000 over the 1963 figure. Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first store in Utica, New York, USA, in 1879. He operated with fixed low prices —c and luc-gave no credit, made no deliveries and put all goods on display. He merged with other com- panies to form F W. Wool- worth & Co. with 598 stores in 1912. Further branches were built up throughout the USA, Canada and Cuba. The English company F. W.

Woolworth & Co. Ltd., was formed in 1910 and had 330 by 1928. Control was stores maintained by the New York company and today the British subsidiary provides one-third of the US company's profits.

in 1919, Woolworth died leaving an estate of $27m.

Another rapidly expanding sector of retailing is the mail order business which trebled in size from 1957 to 1967. Its 800,000-odd part-time agents and organizers sell on credit and receive 10-12 per cent on all sales. Customers usually have to pay an initial 5 per cent on goods and the rest over 19 weeks. Six companies take around 88 per cent of the total sales including GUS 33 per cent, Littlewoods 25 per cent and Grattan Warehouse 15 per cent. One other retail enterprise must be mentioned, not only because it is by far the largest in Britain, but also because of its important contribution to the development of the labour movement.

THE CO-OPERATIVE RE-

TAIL

SOCIETIES: 20,000

shops, 250,000 employees. Turnover £1,200m a yeal. Membership 12 million. The first successful Co- operative shop was founded in in Rochdale by the 1844 Equitable Pioneers; they were 28 working men with a capital of £28 raised between them.

They were Owenites, followers of the ideas of Robert Owen, believing that capitalism could be peacefully eroded and transformed into socialism by

SAYS

FARESUP

DIRECT

SUPPLY FROM

and PORK

RACE ABATTOR

LAMB

6:39

LETS

33. the steady growth of Co- operative enterprises. All class struggle would be avoided and capitalists con- vinced of the error of their ways. These aims quickly proved futile - the Chartists soon showed that the fundamental question was one of political power and revolutionary force.

The Co-ops, nevertheless, achieved a phenomenal growth.

Societies spread • throughout Britain and later developed throughout the world. • The original aims of the Societies were: a retail system controlled by its members who were also its customers-each member to have a single vote, whatever his shareholding in by the Society; to distribute the To

WORKERS

NINGS

OUR

OR

ARE

S THAN

WAGE SLAVES

LATIO

IN ÷

EARN LESS

operating profit as a dividend Societies control 7 er cent o all retail trade and 15 per members in cent to proportion to Britain. their purchases; to buy in bulk of all grocery trade in They 4,000 butcher at wholesale prices and supply operate good food and reliable goods shops, 300 department stores, 2,100 off-licences and retail at reasonable retail prices (this milk sold was the period of widespread one-third of all in of food); to pro- Britain. In 1970 there was a adulteration £34m of which vide education for employees, surplus of returned £20m members and the general was to pur- chasers as 'dividend stamps'.

public. The Co-ops catered for the From their earlier high aims higher-paid workers and salary of control, the customer could who afford to earners Societies degenerated into com- wait for the 'divi' and in fact control, bureaucratic Forming close taks with pri could use this as a method of saving. However, ate manufacturers. first Co-operative The millions of workers still loyally Wholesale Society was formed continue to support the Co-op, in 1863 as a supplier to the not just as another shop, but retail Societies. Later, farms on a point of principle. and factories were established.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

Today, the Co-op's 280 local

ONE OF THE BETTER CLASS OF

BY ANNE BLAKEMAN

MENACE Series: "Deliver Us From Evil.' By Hugh White- Produced by Jordan more. Samean Proto BBC P David Sullivan Bodmin Moor - tradi- tional spot for creepy happenings — a young man of lean and anxious counternance encounters a gateway bound by chains, surrounded by storm - whipped treetops and a ferocious breed of crow, guarded by roar- ing. hounds bent on lay. ing their teeth on him. Undeterred, John Beste, our hero, plunges onward and despite a series of crash- ing omens, including a grave- yard stuffed with weeds and more howling presences, meets up with the local vicar his decaying mansion with more heavy-handed signposts to doom such as barred doors and black turrets, broken floorboards and cobwebs. The vicar has advertised for an organist and John Beste has responded. It is soon apparent that the vicar is a madman with all sorts of philosphies, that debateable the place is full of rats and old bibles and that it's cer- tainly no place for spending even the odd hour, let alone any nights. However (surprise) a storm blows up, thunder and light- ning abound, rain teams down, the dogs yowl and the crows rasp; John Beste is deter- mined to make it back into town, against vicar's the wishes, and sets off on a nightmare, journey through the grounds in which trees attack him, the shortly appears soaked to the skin and under- standably hysterical. By this time, viewers of this highly - predictable piece of garbage, are in the sort of coma that this sort of tele- vision drama is designed to induce: it has the happy familiaritv of material that is not likely to disturb with any nasty unforeseen events, has Israel Independence Day will be commemorated today by a big military parade in Jeru- salem, costing over £2m. take place Parades every year, but this year the parade is supposed to be special, as it marks the 25th anniversary of the Zionist state. It will also be made more noteworthy this year by something else- the vast throng of among Israeli taxpayers who are ex- pected to turn up to watch their money being spent, one figure will be noticeable by his absence. Itzhak Ben-Aharon, leader of the Histadrut labour unions, who was to represent the workers' organizations at the celebrations, has returned his invitation, explaining that he does not consider the mili- tary parade appropriate, and besides, the money in- that, volved in expenditure on the parade could have been better spent. The absence of the Hista- drut man from the parade, on what for the Zionists is a most important occasion, will con- siderably mar their effort to present a picture of 'national no relation to the realities of everyday life and is full of infantile distractions and suggestions of what is always fondly called the super- natural' to take minds off the price of beef or wage-cuts.

But all is not finished yet: John Beste returns to the doubtful company of his luna- they engage in tic vicar and polemics about MAN: MAN says the vicar is naturally evil-John, being school- a master and sensitive at that, claims the opposite. him in a The vicar locks room for the night and possibly for eternity claiming that such innocence and goodness must be protected from the world. John Beste, a resource- ful fellow, unlocks the win- dow, braves the savage hounds and makes it over the wall to freedom on to Bodmin Moor. The vicar died in 1959, we are told, of coronary throm- bosis and are thus induced to speculate that the whole thing was drawn from 'true life' Hugh Whitemore is a skilful and intelligent writer who meaning manages to extract even from the most meagre circumstances, as in this piece; the dialogue is stylish and restrained. Lewis Flanders gave a fine portrayal of the young man— and the whole piece was de- signed primarily as a vehicle, it seemed, for one of the old masters of the theatre, John Gielgud, to give a performance of considerable distinction, even against such odds. Three talents-and those of producer and director and production team-of no mean proportions, given over to the presentation of such profound trivia, might seem confusing.

The television companies are turning out an enormous amount of this sort of material these days-plays concerned • with the supernatural, the occult, fantasy of any old gruesome kind in such series

'MENACE'

and NIGHT as

GALLERY'.

There is nothing confusing in the motives behind it. This stuff is quite simply designed to confuse, to distract from unity'. And it marks a break in the Histadrut's long record of full political and practical support for the state. It can be truthfully said that without the Histadrut, there probably would never have been any state of Israel. Of Ben-Aharon's course, boycott is only a weak ges- ture. But it does indicate the tensions growth of class underneath. Golda Meir Not that the Israeli estab- lishment is unduly worried Ben-Aharon himself, about although they might like to give that impression. When he wanted to resign as Histadrut secretary-general, in protest over government interference in wage negotiations, it was Israeli premier Golda Meir who persuaded him to stay in office. The more astute of Israeli politicians have come to see Ben-Aharon, with his occa- sional 'militant'-sounding talk about the workers and his A scene from the MENACE series: 'Del the mounting chaos that objec- tive circumstances present to us all: such talents as White- more and Gielgud are slotted willy-nilly, naturally enough, into work of this kind. It is clear that the more im- becilic the quality of the drama, the more care and con- sideration is given to it, to it the give appearance intelligent, enlightened work.

intellectual life which, An in times of stress, is centred upon fantasy, speculation, introspection and the worst kind of second-rate morality, has always been the preroga- gestures of protest, as a use- ful safety-valve for working- class discontent at present.

If the Hollywood script-writ- ers and producers had been called in to liven up the 'Adventures of the QE2', there could have been some sort of climax to stimulate us.

Like, say, a massive attack by thousands ot extras, dressed up as Arabs-instead of Red Indians-all paddling canoes, or dhows or some- and making high- thing, pitched blood-curdling yells and shooting rifles in the air.

The navy could then arrive at the last minute to save the day, like the US cavalry • with bagpipes playing maybe on the foredecks, though ...

and with some handsome star playing Moshe Dayan to finish embracing Barbra the film Streisand on the bridge as the sun sets over Haifa bay. It wouldn't have conflicted with the general air of un- reality about the trip of US Jews to Israel to celebrate the state's 25 and who years, knows, the box-office returns might have covered the costs of it all. •is, slightly puzzled As it Israelis who have been scratch- ing their heads wondering what the fuss was about will all shortly be finding that the saga has not ended yet. When the ship moved on to Workers Press, eries: 'Deliver Us From Evil' shown on BBC 1 | tive of the middle classes.

These days, the screens and bookstalls are crammed with variations on these themes. Ghost stories are old favour- ites-'Deliver us from Evil' was a stylish performance, one of the better class of ghost stories and given a seriousness of approach that might delude us for moments at a time is something of that there import here! In this way drama becomes nothing better than an ex- the face of crescence on society, a parasite feeding on the superficial, reflecting the Haifa, there was a little prob- lem of parking space. It was by whoever decides decided, these things, that whereas a ship of. that size might nor- mally be anchored in the bay passengers ferried and the this would not do for ashore, the QE 2 for security reasons.

So the harbour-master had to find a suitable wharf for the liner to tie up at. It docked alongside a fami- liar Haifa landmark-the huge ".:" ers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 PAGE 9 n BBC 1 last Thursday night.

most contemptible facets of a capitalist world in crisis.

Drama, in these times, is nothing better than a dim charade without consent or durability. Even while every fresh shock economic and other- wise, in the objective world brings home to us that appear- ance means nothing, the pur- of our 'culture' insist veyors by implication, more and more forcefully, that appearance is thing that matters- the only performance, style, form is all; content is consigned to an afterthought. Dagon grain elevator. This gave the passengers a unique opportunity to appre- ciate an impressive piece of architecture, but, incidentally, it prevented grain ships from unloading. This happens to be a time when cheap grain from the USA could have been shipped in. The hold-up is likely to price increases. All in bring. quite an expensive all, its cruise. Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37Łp Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

Order from: NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 By LEON TROTSKY Paperback. £1.00 Illustrated Sharp pen-portraits of leading Second Interna- figures of the tional in Russia and Europe, for.

first time published in an the The translations English edition. were first commissioned by the Keep Young Socialists' paper Left' Their enormous success has of the led to the completion translation of the whole book, which is the first part of Volume 8 of Leon Trotsky's 'Works' pub- lished in the Soviet Union in 1926. It provides the most vivid picture available of the historic Second figures of the Inter- national, their strengths and weaknesses, written by an obser- ver who also a participant in the daily struggle of the Euro- pean and Russian working class.

Now available from New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG сак. get WORKERS PRESS Do you out a subscription now? £20.28 for 12 months (312 issues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to : Circulation Dept.. Workers Press. 186a Clapham Hiah St..

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Name... Address. Mansfield Hosiery Mills workers on stril Leaders of the 500 Asian workers who recently struck alleging race dis- crimination at Mansfield Hosiery Mills, Lough- borough, Leicestershire, are organizing a national conference in Birming. ham early next month. The conference — sponsored by a number of trade union 'lefts' such as Alan Sapper of the television technicians, Ernie Roberts of the engineers, George Doughty of the draughtsmen and Jack Dunn of the miners-has been called to discuss the lessons of the strike. In line with the recom- mendations of a Department of Employment inquiry, 28 Asians contested were given knitters' jobs for the first time in the history of the factory.

to the strike According it was also the committee, hirst time in the history of the industry this had been done. pr But white knitters refused to train the Asians and man- agement has had to bring in training officers from outside undertake the task. to The agenda of next month's Writings of OF Leon Trotsky

LEON TROTSHY

Ext-30 (1938-9)

WRITINGS OF

LEON

LEON

TROTSKY

(1933-34) (1834-35 Six volumes of Trotsky's writings during the years 1933-1940 £8.00 including postage Please tick those you requ Name Address Complete form and post to New Park Publications, 1{ A New Park Publica

DISPUTE

7.02 Nº1 rs on strike last year against discrimination in conference, however, will cover just the wider issues than situation in the factory.

Provisionally, there will be three topics: the fight against in Britain generally, racialism how the trade union movement can take a leading role in this fight and what measures the union can take to service the needs of immigrant workers.

The chairman of the com- mittee which led the 12-week strike, J. Naik, says: 'One very important question the strike sharply posed was that of the unity of the working people of Britain. 'Was this hard-won unity built through centuries of struggle to be vitiated now by the cancer of racialism, which, if allowed to go unchecked, must destroy the solidarity of the labour movement? 'For this cancer can only benefit those who wish to profit from the fruits of the working people in Britain.' says Mr The conference, the Naik, will be a unique one, probably the first one of its kind in the country. He and the committee are hoping it will be a success. The Mansfield Hosiery Mills strike began with a claim by semi-skilled bar loaders for a History of Russian Revolution —special gift pack of three volumes £1.70 including postage ou require. Amount enclosed £.

post to: tions, 186a Clapham High Street, Lon Publications Booklist is a vailable, fre ination in job training. £5-a-week wage rise, submitted on October 3, 1972. It soon developed into a struggle involving alleged dis- crimination after two Asians, who had been promoted to the knitting section, were demoted to their original bar-loading jobs after a strike by white workers. After the Race Relations Board declared that dis- criminatory practices were be- ing carried out in the factory, management and union leaders . a compromise forward settlement which offered the bar loaders a marginal increase.

The terms proposed also that future knitting promised jobs would be allocated regard- less of colour, race, ethnic origin or nationality, but with- in a very short time the Asians learned that the firm had employed 41 trainee new knitters who were all white.

When they struck again, their mood was far more militant, and the National Union of Hosiery and Knit- wear Workers was forced, after much delay, to make the strike official. It was after this that the D of E stepped in with its committee of inquiry under former Kenneth Robinson, Labour Minister. Trotsky —a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage VAT Registration No. 235 9135 59 eet, London SW4 7UG able, free, on request.

'threaten civil rights'

BY JOHN SPENCER

THE increasing use of in charges conspiracy cases of a political nature was highlighted at the annual conference of the National Council of Civil Liberties at the weekend.

In its annual report the council warns that 'the con- spiracy law continues to pose a dangerous threat to civil

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE MEETINGS

BRIXTON: Monday May 7, 8 p.m.

Room, Training COnt Ol Centre. 'Report back from May Day': LEWISHAM: Monday May p.m. Deptford Engineers' Cross Station. NeW

TUC

in the fight Tole ine against the Tories'.

BATTERSEA:

Tuesday May 8, •i wanes. North worth Road and Street. 'Report back from May Day.

DA. Marking Cord Hall, Sa p.m. Barking Co-op shawe Avenue. Marxism and the trade unions.' TOTTENHAM: Tuesday M, High p.m. Bricklayers Arms, Road Force the Tories to resign! ane.

White Hart

WYTHENSHAWE

(Manchester): p.M. Report May 'Cock o'th'North'. Portway. back from May Day'.

KINGSTON:

10, Thursday Norbiton p.m. Hotel, from May "Forward Day —to remove the Tories.' Thursday May Brent Labour and Trades • •.M. Hall Willesden High Road, NW10. 'Stalinism and the strua.

gle to defend democratic rights.'

DARLASTON:

d. "Fight The Na's Head. p.m. and the State Laws Measured-Day Work.' HULL: Thursday Witham. ® Atter Windmill Witham. motel. May Day—what next?'

LEEDS:

Thursday, May 10, 7.30 p.m. Peel Hotel Lane Boar Building the revolutionary party.'

AST LONDON: Monday May 14 8 р.m. Bromley Public Hall, Bow Road, WANDSWORTH: Monday May 14, All Trades Unions Alliance Public Meetings What next aiter the miners' ballot? The fight against the Tory government 04, 8 P.m: Men tay. May Blue p.m. Speaker: Mike Banda (SLL Central Committee).

CASTLEFORD:

May 17, 8 p.m. Sagar Rooms. Speaker: G. Secretary SLL). liberty'. This was borne out by speakers at the confer- ence, some from their own experience. Speakers pointed out that in a conspiracy trial the prosecution can make use of evidence about 'your life-style, your friends, your opinions, all things which would allowed in another never criminal case.' specifically The report refers to the 'Oz' and 'IT' trials, the Aldershot bomb trial and the case of James Roche and Bowes Egan, charged with conspiring to throw a CS canister into the House of Commons. Peter Hain, himself the victim .m. 8 p.m. Kings Arms, High Street, SW18. WATFORD: Monday May 14, 8 p.m. Watford Trade Union Hall, near Watford Junction Station.

'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.

TOOTING: Tuesday May 15, 8 Tooting Baths, Tooting p.m. 'Build the Broadway, SW17. Revolutionary Party! SLOUGH: Wednesday May 16, 8 p.m. Community Centre, Farn- ham Road. 'Forward to the Revolutionary Party.' SOUTHALL: Wednesday May 16, 8 p.m. Southall Library, Osterley Park Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.'

WALTHAMSTOW:

Wednesday 16, 8 p.m. The Crooked May Billet; North Circular Road. 'Force the Tories to resign.'

WEMBLEY: Wednesday May 16, High Copland School, • p.m. Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.

WOOLWICH: Wednesday May 16, to defend democratic rights.

SWANSEA: Thursday. May 17, YMCA. 'Defend wor- 7.30 p.m. kers' basic rights. General Strike to Force the Tories to resign.'

BASILDON: 'Thursday May 17, Community Barnstaple p.m. Centre. 'Stalinism and the strug- gle to defend democratic rights.' CROYDON: Thursday May 17, 8 Ruskin House, Coombe p.m. Road, Croydon. 'Forward to the Revolutionary Party.' FELTHAM: Thursday May 17, 8 p.m. 'Three Horse Shoes, Felt- ham High Street. 'Stalinism and struggle Alliance Public Meetings BARNSLEY: Thursday May Slaughter (SLL Central Committee). Thursday , 8 p.m. Sagar St G. Healy (National of a private prosecution on con- spiracy charges last year, said that it is 'an incredibly chasten- ing experience' to be tried on a conspiracy charge. "Things you have said and are brought up written at the trial in a setting which is totally removed from the political con- text in which they took place,' he said. *In addition conspiracy charges force people to prove their inno- cence, reversing the basic prin- of British law that a man ciple is innocent until proved guilty.'

Other speakers drew attention to the recent judgement of the Court of Appeal the Kamara established case, criminal conspiracy can exist even though the defendants were planning not commit criminal offence. In the Kamara case a group of Sierra Leone students were found guilty of conspiracy after an attempt to occupy the embassy in London. The occupation-a form of trespass-was not in it- self a criminal offence. Member Eric Thompson chal- lenged the NCCL policy of seek- THREE detectives are to be pro- secuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions after allegations of fabricated evidence. The three officers are Det. Chief Inspector Percival Postans of Birmingham City Police; Det Sgt John Thomas Wood, of West Mercia Constabulary; and Det Sgt Derek John French, of the Warwickshire Coventry force. All were seconded to the Mid- land Regional Crime Squad last year when Donald Bennett (36), of Warstock, Birmingham, was arrested on charges of breaking and entering. After being in custody on re- mand and awaiting trial for 19 weeks, he acquitted was at Coventry Crown Court in June last year.

TODAY'S TV

BBC 1

9.38-11.55 12.20 Dechrau canu. 12.55 News. one. 1.30 Joe. 1.45 Pets and vets. 2.05 Schools. 3.10 Expedition North 3.35 America. Holiday 73. 4.00 Huckleberry hound. 4.10 Play 4.35 Jackanory. school. 4.50 Blue Peter. 5.15 Champion for the king. 5.40 Hector's house. 5.45 News, weather. 6.00

NATIONWIDE

6.50

TELEVISION

TOP OF THE

FORM.

7.15 Z CARS. Mileage. 8.00

PANORAMA

9.00 LABOUR

PARTY POLITICAL

9.05 THE MAIN

9.30 THE

SEARCH

FOR

THE

NILE. Conquest and Death.

10.20 UK

BALLROOM

DANCE

CHAMPIONSHIPS 1973.

10.55 MILO O'SHEA. Stone Cold Sober. 11.25

LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.30

MAN IN HIS

PLACE.

The Survivors'. The depopulation of Devon. 11.50 Weather.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 World War (London only). 11.00 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Skribble. 12.40 First 1.00 Mr and Mrs. 1.30 Em- report. merdale farm. 2.00 This is life. 2.20 Cartoon 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Doing things. 3.25 Public eye. 4.25 Clapperboard. 4.50 Tomorrow people. 5.20 And mother makes three. 5.50 News. 6.00

TODAY.

DAVID NIXON SHOW.

6.40

THE

Guests Les Dawson, Finn Ton, Bevan Raynor, Shag Connors, Carrot Crunchers.

7.30 CORONATION STREET.

8.00

BLESS THIS HOUSE.

Atishoo! Atishoo! We All Fall Down. 8.30

WORD IN ACTION

9.00

LABOUR

PARTY POLITICAL

BROADCAST.

THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK

9.05

HOLMES.

The Missing QCs.

NEWS

10.05

AT TEN.

THE WILD,

10.35 WILD WEST. The Night of the Vicious Valen- tine. 11.35

THE ART OF THE CRAFT.

French polishing. 12.05

WORLD WAR

I.

12.30 IDEAS IN PRINT.

Workers Press, ing an 'early review' of the law on conspiracy and advocated the total abolition of this offence.

It was 'terribly convenient' for the authorities to use conspiracy charges against minority groups, he said. 'I find myself strongly attracted by the idea of abolishing the law of conspiracy, Mr Thomp- son said. Other speakers pointed out the dangers to the trade unions posed by conspiracy law, particularly since the passing of the Industrial Relations Act. THE 58 British Leyland engine assemblers who have been on strike for five weeks, forcing management to lay off over 2,300 men at its five Lancashire bus and truck factories, have decided to return to work on Monday. The assemblers, who have been pursuing a claim for extra track allowance, have won an immediate £l increase in their pay packets, although this will be subsumed by any future plant- wide increase. His wife, Mrs Doris Bennett, then alleged that evidence against him had been fabricated. THE Belfast Ten Defence Com- mittee is holding a vigil outside Brixton Prison every Saturday starting at 2.00 p.m. Other pickets and vigils are to be held one Sunday per month in places to be announced.

On Sunday, May 20, one day before the trial, the committee is holding a march from Stock- well to Brixton, assembling at 1.30 p.m. The committee is appealing for full support for these activities.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

7.05 PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

7.30 NEWS SUMMARY.

Weather.

7.35 INSIDE MEDICINE.

8.00 THE

HIGH CHAPARRAL.

Alliance.

8.50 DAILY ROUND.

9.00

LABOUR PARTY

POLITICAL

BROADCAST.

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 9.30-12.00 London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. 2.00_ Schools. 2.30 News. Life in Survival. 6.45 9.05 London. 10.35 Theatre. 11.20 Histor 2.10 " racing. 11.45

WESTWARD.

London. 12.37 Gus Honeybun. London. 12.57 News. 1.00 Lon- don. London. 10.3=6.20 Sports desk.

May. 11.25 Happiness busi- ness. 12.10 Epilogue.

SOUTHERN:

London. Schools. 12.05 London. Houseparty 6.45 3.00 London. Day by Dilage or children. 11.05 Farm progress. 12.30 Weather,

HARLECH: 9.30

2.30 Dateline. 3.00 Lon- your service. don. 6.01 Report West. 6.22 Report Wales. 6.45 London. 10.35 Film: •Brides of Dracula'. 12.05 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: 2.30 Hammdden. 6.01-6.22 Y dydd. 8.30-9.00 Yr wythnos.

HTV

West as above except: 6.22-6.45 This is the West this week.

ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London. 2.00 At your service.. 2.20 London. 6.00 couple cers Press, Monday May 7, 1973 PAGE 11

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE LECTURES

Given by Gerry Healy, National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League Wednesday May 9 The materialist conception of History Wednesday May 16 Dialectical Materialism- a Marxist theory of knowledge. Wednesday May 23 Theory and Practise of Marxism Wednesday May 30 Role of the revolutionary Party at St David's Church Hall, Church Street, Merthyr 7.30 p.m. Jarrow Given by Cliff Slaughter SLL Central Committee member Civic Hall, Jarrow 7.30 p.m. Mondays May 7, 14 and 21 The Socialist Revolution in Britain: 1. Political tasks facing the British working class. Marxism and the revolutionary role of the working class. Lessons of the history of the working class in Britain. 2. The roots of capitalist crisis: Marxism and the contradictions of capitalism. Britan and the world crisis. 3. The state and revolution.

Reformism and revolution Britain. The fight for democratic rights today means preparing for working-class power. Basic reading : Perspectives for transforming the SLL into a revolutionary party.

Marxist Analysis of the Crisis.

Problems of the British Revolu- tion (Trotsky). Death Agony of Capitalism and Tasks of the Fourth Inter- national, Communist Manifesto.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Workers Published by Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 Printed Plough Newsdesk: 01-622 7029.

9.05 CALL MY BLUFF.

9.35 SHOW OF THE WEEK: AN

EVENING

FRANCIS

HOWERD.

DOCUMENTARY:

Man that Never ' The rise and fall of the Sussex missing 11.10 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

11.30 OPEN DOOR. Feedback.

ATV today. 6.45 • London. 10.35 Romantic versus classic 11.05 art. Man in a suitcase. 12.05 Epilogue. Weather. ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.33 News.

1.40 London 4.23 News 2.40 Romper _room. 3.00 London. •4.25 Lon- don. 5.20 Emmerdale farm. 5.50 London. 6.00

UTV

reports. 6.15 Please don't eat the daisies. 6.45 Fomon The Fantastic Disappearing Monday night. Man'. YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 2.00 At your service. 2.30 London. 6.00 Calen- dar. Weather. London. Emmerdale farm. Outsider. Weather. GRANADA: 9.30 London. 2.00 At your service. 2.30 Yoga. 2.55 London.

6.00 Newsday. 6.25 This is your right.

6.40 London. 10.35 Film: 'The Stripper'. SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.00 At your service. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 Lon- don. 4.25 Superman. 4.50 London. 6.00 Scotland today. 6.30 Cartoon. 6.45 London 10.35 Late call. 10.40 You pays your money. 11.10 O'Hara.

GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 1.00 Ed Schools. Cartoon. dale farm. 5.50 London. Strictly Scottish. 10.35 Romantic v classic art. 11.05 University challenge. 11.35 Odd couple. 12,05 • Meditation.

THE PLOT AGAINST

THE WORKING CLASS

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday May 7, ' THE COLLABORATION between union bureaucracy and the ruling salvage the capitalist system out economic crisis took further omino HUGH SCANLON is one of the most promi- nent of the TUC leaders who have been preparing deals behind the backs of the working class in secret talks with Heath. Alongside Scanlon have been Feather, Jack Jones, Alf Allen, Sir Sidney Greene and a representative of the General and Municipal Wor- kers' Union. But Scanlon only last week denied any knowledge of talks already having started with the Tories. He told his own union mem- bers at the draughtsmer's con- ference in Bournemouth that IF there was an invitation to talks, favour- it should be considered ably. This double-talk has been in the further taken a stage issue of the 'AUEW latest Journal.' In an editorial, Scanlon writes: Trade unionists had to fight with the weapon of industrial Tory power in 1890 against government to achieve the shor- ter working day. We similarly fight a Tory government in 1973 to prevent our standard of living from being deliberately lowered by government policies' Scanlon talks left words to his members but does the com- opposite in the plete secret dealings with the Tories.

The Phase Two restraint on wages has already led to re- duction in the standard of living of the working class, with a net gain of 5 to per cent for wages after deductions but with the official cost of living rising by 8 to 9 per cent a year.

Phase Two is indeed an ex- ample of a Tory government de- standard liberately lowering the of living of the working class, but who has accepted Phase Two? The TUC leaders. Who ran away from co-ordin- ated strike action in support of the hospital workers, who were fighting Phase Two, despite a clear call to organize such action from the March 5 special Con- gress? The same TUC leaders.

Scanlon has not once repudia- ted either of these acts, although he is on all the leading TUC committees that are responsible for them. in His participation secret dealings with Heath, kept hidden from his own members, indicate that he is a willing participant in these acts. Scanlon adds: "The so-called fight against inflation is only a cover up for a fight by the gov- ernment against working people' THE GROSS deception be- ing perpetrated on the work- ing class by all the talk of economic boom was taken a stage further at the weekend when the capitalist Press predicted 9 per cent wage increases as being the likely norm under Phase Three of government pay laws the due in the autumn. Such talk is designed to build atmosphere of economic up an expansion and more money in the pocket in order to disarm the working class and conceal from it the rapidly deepening crisis condition of Britain's economy. By the talk of higher wages, ay May 7, 1973 between the trade over the weekend. e ruling class to Workers Press tem out of the Royston Bull look collaboration. er ominous turns Yet if the government's offer of talks with the TUC are noth- ing but a cover for further at- tacks on the working class, as Workers Press has consistently why is demonstrated, then only justifying such Scanlon not talks to the Torquay conference but taking part in them in com- from his own plete secrecy members? Anticipating more attacks on himself for his role within the TUC leadership, Scanlon tries to deflect some of the blows.

'The response by so many of the movement's rank and file in great difficulties the face of the abiding strength of proves the British working class.

'It was only positive leadership that was missing, not the willing- ness of trade unionists to act.'

Precisely, Mr Scanlon. And you doing? what were Scanlon is only able to get Victor Feather made further revelations at the weekend of the enormous impositions the TUC leaders have agreed to lay on the working class in order to help the capital- ists out of their crisis.

These burdens on the wor- king class have been worked out at secret talks with the Heath government. Iwo sessions of these secret meetings have so far come to light: a Sunday at Chequers on March 18 and a meeting at Downing Street on April 19.

Feather, in a speech at Gla- morgan, revealed that the trade union leaders are prepared to: • ACCEPT the Industrial Re- lations Act in full • SWALLOW the principle of continuing boom, and the friendly discussions Heath will formally start to have with trade union leaders this week, it is hoped to lull the working class's defences so as to prepare for the drastic measures of wage cuts, closures, restrictions on democratic rights that the collapse of this phoney boom will necessitate.

By deliberately avoiding any mention of the dire difficulties Britain's economy is plunging into, with record balance-of-pay- ments deficits and runaway inflation, conditions are prepared for a possible snap election -summer or early autumn. The Tories might need a new mandate before attempting introduce the severe restraints that eventually will be made by the completely necessary anarchic spending spree which s Press industrial correspondent Bull looks at three aspects of this with his rotten political away collaboration with ruling class because of the deliberate cover provided for him by the Communist Party. Scanlon tribute to the pays role the Stalinist 'Morning Star' performs. 'Nothing could better prove this continuing pro-Tory bias (in the Press) than the vicious and hys- terical campaign waged by all save one of the newspapers in Fleet Street against the trade unions' resistance to the gross unfairness of present government policy? Another lie. Scanlon knows that Workers Press. holds the commanding position in the fight the workers' for principle movement. He also knows the long history of Stalinist treachery, by the 'Morning exemplified Star' ', which he is referring to here. the permanent state control of wages and

• ACQUIESCE

in Britain's membership of the monopolist Common Market. These three developments are the crucial core of the whole Tory philosophy since they came three years ago, of to power first halting the rise in the wor- king-class standard of living and eventually reversing it. Tory policy is to begin to cut ware rates in Britain so as to production and reduce costs rescue Britain's rapidly-declining economic position. It is essential, if these policies are to be carried through, to cripple the power of the trade union movement. That is why the pay laws and the Industrial Relations Act are so important to the Tories. The Common Market is also vital for boosting the political strength of Britain's sick and tottering ruling class, and to provide a cover for the relent- less rise in prices caused world-wide capitalist inflation; s Feather's latest list of SO- the Tories, called 'demands' on if wages are to continue to be restrained, are just propaganda gestures which will quickly be forgotten as they have already been in the TUC's acceptance of Phase Two. The 'demands' are controls on food special action on prices, loW higher pensions, re- pay, duction of Britain's EEC con- of VAT, tributions, reduction postponement of further rent in- creases and expansion of house building. Completely left out-for the first time in a public speech are any call to repeal the In- dustrial Relations Act, withdraw EEC and from the monopolist restore free collective bargain- ing, which are the key issues of facing the working class.

the capitalists have manufactured by printing vast amounts of fresh money and running up huge foreign debts. The Tories' original intention for autumn's Phase Three was to cut wage increases down to 3 or 4 per cent, on their way to- wards an eventual nil norm, i.e.

no wage increases at all. If prices are still rising uncontrollably. by then and the trade union move- ment has remained largely un- the Tories' defeated, timetable may have to be altered. But their aim remains the goods same: to make British competitive again on world mar- kets by savagely cutting down on the working class standard of artificial boom will living. The only make the Tories need to do this even more imperative when it ends. STALINIST Max Morris, presi- dent of the National Union of Teachers, is to serve on the advisory committee on the supply and training of teachers set up by Tory education minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher. The NUT, together with the 'joint four' secondary associations and the Association of Teachers all Technical Institutions, submitted amendments the to proposed committee which were overruled by Thatcher. The committee is to have will advisory powers only and consist of 29 members, only eight of whom will be teachers.

The NUT had wanted the com- mittee to have more power, to consist of 50 members and to 50-per-cent teacher have over representation. 'disappointment' Despite its however, the NUT has decided 'under protest'. to nominate Morris and general secretary Edward Britton to work on Mrs Thatcher's committee. All Trades Unions Alliance meetings

TEACHERS' MEETING

The way forward after the NUT conference Thursday, May 24, 7.30 p.m.

Conway Small Hall. Red Lion Square, Holborn (admission 10p)

HOSPITAL WORKERS'

MEETING

Hospital workers and the fight against the Tory government Tuesday May 29, 7.30 p.m.

Norfolk Room Caxton Hall, Caxton Street, London SW1 (admission 10p)

BUILDING WORKERS'

MEETING

TUC must break off talks with Tories! Build revolutionary party!

Wednesday, May 30, 7.30 p.m. Tudor Room Caxton Hall. Caxton Street, London SW1 (admission 10p)

POSTAL WORKERS'

MEETING

Break off secret talks with the Tories! Force the Tories to resign!

Sunday, June 3, 10.30 a.m.

Conway Small Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn (admission 10p) Fire-station move to cut hours

FIREMEN

meeting More- cambe this month will be asked to take industrial action in sup- port of a call for shorter hours.

Forty seven resolutions for the Fire Brigades Union conference are concerned with hours and most demand that the present 56-hour week be reduced to 48 without loss of pay. There will be calls at the con- ference for these demands to be backed by industrial action.

A • Glamorgan proposal urges that, because of rises in the cost of living and increases resulting from Value-Added Tax, an £8- per-week rise for all ranks should be sought.

MAY FUND

NOW STANDS

WE HAVE now begun to slip back. We started this month well, so let's do everything possible and catch up. Our total to date is £126.71 which is a long way from our £1,750 target. It must be into action right away. the crisis enormous caused by the Watergate affair shakes the United States, we get a glimpse of the depth of the crisis facing the ruling class throughout the world.

Workers Press, alone, is prepared to meet this situa tion. All our efforts must be used to reach out to new readers in every district and provide a firm political lead to thousands of workers every- where. Let's therefore, not waste a moment. We are confident that even greater support can be won behind our paper. So let's press ahead as never before.

Raise all you can and post Immediately to: Workers Press May Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG